Sharp fall in eurozone factory prices
Print Edition
EUROZONE factory prices fell at their sharpest monthly rate in a year in October as the cost of energy and non-durable goods such as food dropped sharply, putting pressure on the European Central Bank to do more to lift the bloc’s depressed economy.
Prices at factory gates in the 18 countries sharing the single currency declined by 0.4 percent from September, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said yesterday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.3 percent drop.
The figure was pulled down most by a 0.9 percent drop in energy costs and by a 0.6 percent decline of non-durable goods prices, depressed by the slide in oil and commodity prices.
October’s fall in producer prices feeds into of the eurozone’s wider problem with deflationary pressures. Factory prices have only risen in June and September.
On an annual basis, prices fell 1.3 percent in October, in line with market hopes and a slightly lower pace than the 1.4 percent slide seen in both August and September. Only prices of capital and durable consumer goods rose.
The steepest annual drops were in Slovakia, Estonia and the Netherlands.
The global financial crisis and the ensuing eurozone crisis have hurt banks’ willingness to lend, damaged business confidence and left the region fighting record unemployment, which has sapped consumers ability to spend.
Now the near 10-trillion-euro (US$12 trillion) eurozone economy is facing deflation, which would make it even harder for the bloc to pay off its debt.
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